MrBill_FTL
Registered
fyi:
Cageless shark diving has boosters, detractors - 03/03/2008 - MiamiHerald.com
ahemmm....
Denise Herzing used to love starting her mornings at sea with a dip in the reef-protected waters off Grand Bahama.
When she was out on dolphin-observation trips near Memory Rock -- off the island's West End -- the marine mammalogist would anchor in a spot that was usually safe from predatory sea animals.
But those swims ended a few years back when unexpected guests crashed the party. More than a half-dozen lemon sharks began circling her boat, conditioned by humans to associate people with food.
Herzing, a Florida Atlantic University professor and treasurer of the Wild Dolphin Project, blames shark-baiting, cageless divers like Jim Abernethy. He is the Riviera Beach business owner whose diving trip to the Bahamas ended with the death of an Austrian tourist on Feb. 27.
''Feeding the sharks changes their behavior,'' Herzing said. ``It's just like feeding bears at Yellowstone. It makes them associate humans with food. It makes them more aggressive. It endangers people.''
Herzing is one of several vocal critics of Abernethy's methods, but the diver, who has declined repeated interview requests, has throngs of dedicated supporters.
The two sides have been engaged in an intense back-and-forth on the Internet since Markus Groh, a 49-year-old Viennese attorney, died from a shark bite last Sunday morning.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office has concluded that loss of blood killed Groh and has ruled the death an accident.
Groh was on one of Abernethy's shark-diving trips to the Bahamas, which, unlike Florida, allows divers to chum waters to attract sharks. It is believed that a tiger shark lunged for food, but got Groh's leg instead.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities, aided by Miami-Dade police, are conducting separate investigations into the incident.
NEGATIVE ATTENTION
Bahamian authorities, concerned by the negative attention the death has brought to their country, could revoke Abernethy's permit that allows him to do business in their country's waters.
There's a fear in the underwater photography community -- whose members have been among Abernethy's staunchest supporters -- that the Bahamas could ban cageless shark diving altogether, which Florida did in 2001.
The website sharksavers.org has begun a petition urging the Bahamas Diving Association ``to preserve current shark diving policies and resist overreaction to this horrible, but isolated, tragedy.''
As of late Friday afternoon, the petition had 298 signers.
Shark Savers, a nonprofit organization founded last year, is made up of divers ''who care deeply about the environment and the oceans and sharks in particular,'' according to its website.
The organization acknowledges the risks involved in cageless diving, but argues the practice has resulted in far fewer deaths than other extreme sports like rock-climbing and cliff-diving. In fact, Groh's death is considered to be the first shark-baiting fatality on record.
Rob Stewart filmed the documentary Shark Angels in the Bahamas in November on Abernethy's boat Shear Water, the same one Groh was on during his fatal adventure. Stewart has appeared on the Today show supporting Abernethy in the wake of last week's incident.
''Diving with sharks is one of the best ways to get new understanding of sharks,'' he said on TV. ``The reality behind sharks is they're not menacing predators of people; they're not out there to get human beings. This shark bite shows that the clear intention of the shark is not to eat them.''
When the dust settles, pro-cageless divers may have little to worry about.
Michael Braynen, the Bahamas' director of marine resources, said none of his government's agencies restrict any form of diving, and as of Friday afternoon, he hadn't heard of any effort to change that.
''Shark diving has been going on for a considerable period of time in the Bahamas,'' Braynen said. ``Some believe it started here.''
`UNFORTUNATE'
''It was an unfortunate accident, but it's not the first time someone has been attacked in the Bahamas or in Florida,'' he added.
Some fear it won't be the last.
George Burgess, a shark researcher for the Florida Museum of Natural History, compared the dumping of bloody chum into the open waters to tossing a sirloin steak to lions on the plains of Africa.
''If you're going to put food in the water and you get the animals excited,'' Burgess said, ``it's your own fault.''
Miami Herald staff writers Evan S. Benn and Alison Hollenbeck contributed to this report.
Cageless shark diving has boosters, detractors - 03/03/2008 - MiamiHerald.com
ahemmm....
Denise Herzing used to love starting her mornings at sea with a dip in the reef-protected waters off Grand Bahama.
When she was out on dolphin-observation trips near Memory Rock -- off the island's West End -- the marine mammalogist would anchor in a spot that was usually safe from predatory sea animals.
But those swims ended a few years back when unexpected guests crashed the party. More than a half-dozen lemon sharks began circling her boat, conditioned by humans to associate people with food.
Herzing, a Florida Atlantic University professor and treasurer of the Wild Dolphin Project, blames shark-baiting, cageless divers like Jim Abernethy. He is the Riviera Beach business owner whose diving trip to the Bahamas ended with the death of an Austrian tourist on Feb. 27.
''Feeding the sharks changes their behavior,'' Herzing said. ``It's just like feeding bears at Yellowstone. It makes them associate humans with food. It makes them more aggressive. It endangers people.''
Herzing is one of several vocal critics of Abernethy's methods, but the diver, who has declined repeated interview requests, has throngs of dedicated supporters.
The two sides have been engaged in an intense back-and-forth on the Internet since Markus Groh, a 49-year-old Viennese attorney, died from a shark bite last Sunday morning.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office has concluded that loss of blood killed Groh and has ruled the death an accident.
Groh was on one of Abernethy's shark-diving trips to the Bahamas, which, unlike Florida, allows divers to chum waters to attract sharks. It is believed that a tiger shark lunged for food, but got Groh's leg instead.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Bahamian authorities, aided by Miami-Dade police, are conducting separate investigations into the incident.
NEGATIVE ATTENTION
Bahamian authorities, concerned by the negative attention the death has brought to their country, could revoke Abernethy's permit that allows him to do business in their country's waters.
There's a fear in the underwater photography community -- whose members have been among Abernethy's staunchest supporters -- that the Bahamas could ban cageless shark diving altogether, which Florida did in 2001.
The website sharksavers.org has begun a petition urging the Bahamas Diving Association ``to preserve current shark diving policies and resist overreaction to this horrible, but isolated, tragedy.''
As of late Friday afternoon, the petition had 298 signers.
Shark Savers, a nonprofit organization founded last year, is made up of divers ''who care deeply about the environment and the oceans and sharks in particular,'' according to its website.
The organization acknowledges the risks involved in cageless diving, but argues the practice has resulted in far fewer deaths than other extreme sports like rock-climbing and cliff-diving. In fact, Groh's death is considered to be the first shark-baiting fatality on record.
Rob Stewart filmed the documentary Shark Angels in the Bahamas in November on Abernethy's boat Shear Water, the same one Groh was on during his fatal adventure. Stewart has appeared on the Today show supporting Abernethy in the wake of last week's incident.
''Diving with sharks is one of the best ways to get new understanding of sharks,'' he said on TV. ``The reality behind sharks is they're not menacing predators of people; they're not out there to get human beings. This shark bite shows that the clear intention of the shark is not to eat them.''
When the dust settles, pro-cageless divers may have little to worry about.
Michael Braynen, the Bahamas' director of marine resources, said none of his government's agencies restrict any form of diving, and as of Friday afternoon, he hadn't heard of any effort to change that.
''Shark diving has been going on for a considerable period of time in the Bahamas,'' Braynen said. ``Some believe it started here.''
`UNFORTUNATE'
''It was an unfortunate accident, but it's not the first time someone has been attacked in the Bahamas or in Florida,'' he added.
Some fear it won't be the last.
George Burgess, a shark researcher for the Florida Museum of Natural History, compared the dumping of bloody chum into the open waters to tossing a sirloin steak to lions on the plains of Africa.
''If you're going to put food in the water and you get the animals excited,'' Burgess said, ``it's your own fault.''
Miami Herald staff writers Evan S. Benn and Alison Hollenbeck contributed to this report.
